1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a magazine follower portion for a fastener driving tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many fastener driving tools include a magazine for feeding a collation strip of fasteners to a nosepiece of the tool. Many of the collation strips used in fastener driving tools include a plurality of sleeves that are connected in series, wherein the leading sleeve and fastener can break away from adjacent sleeves when the tool drives the leading fastener. Examples of fastener collation strips are taught in the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,340 to Ernst et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,622 to Gupta et al., the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Many fastener driving tools incorporate a magazine to feed the fasteners and also include a magazine follower to bias the collation strip toward the nosepiece so that when one fastener is driven, the remaining fasteners will be pushed towards the nosepiece so that the next fastener is in a position to be driven. An example of a magazine follower is taught in the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,412 to Weinger et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Prior magazine followers have been known to cause the collation strip to bend slightly so that the fasteners become angled in relation to each other and so that the collation strip is slightly skewed as it is pushed by the magazine follower. In some cases, this bending, also known as xe2x80x9cjacking,xe2x80x9d can break one of the sleeves of the collation strip off which can cause jamming of the fastener driving tool.
What is needed is a magazine follower that will stabilize the trailing end of the collation strip of fasteners within the magazine and ensure that the collation strip is fed through the magazine in the proper orientation by the magazine follower.
In accordance with the present invention, a fastener driving tool is provided. The fastener driving tool includes a housing having an axis, the housing enclosing a piston having a driver blade, a nosepiece associated with the housing and extending in the axial direction, the nosepiece having a barrel to accept a fastener and to axially guide the driver blade toward impact with the fastener, a magazine associated with the nosepiece for feeding a collation strip of fasteners to the barrel of the nosepiece, and a magazine follower slidably mounted on the magazine for biasing the collated strip of fasteners toward the nosepiece, the magazine follower having a profile, wherein the collated strip of fasteners includes an extension having a profile that complements the profile of the magazine follower.
Also in accordance with the present invention, a fastener driving tool is provided for driving a fastener into a substrate. The fastener driving tool includes a housing having an axis, a nosepiece connected to the housing and extending axially away from the housing, a magazine associated with the nosepiece for feeding a collation strip of fasteners to the nosepiece, wherein the collation strip of fasteners has a trailing end, the collation strip having a profile at the trailing end, and a magazine follower for biasing the collation strip of fasteners toward the nosepiece, the magazine follower having a profile that complements the profile of the collation strip of fasteners.